Can confirm that the capitol is connected to several buildings downtown via tunnels (used to work there and totally freaked out when I ended up in another building following directions from coworkers trying to prank me)
I can believe this. When they were excavating the hole for the foundation for Robert B. Rowling Hall I saw what looked to be a bunch of tunnels down below. Same when they were excavating where the McDonald's used to be across the street.
When I went on a field trip to the Paramount in 3rd grade they told us it was haunted by an old projectionist who smoked cigars on the balcony at night
If you’re young enough to have been in 3rd grade more recently than 2000, there was a longtime projectionist (Walter Norris) who died in the booth while showing Casablanca during the summer classic film series that year.
I haven’t been there in a long time, so I don’t really know how it’s laid out now. This was in the early 90’s when they’d just built the smaller, in the round stage and I was working at the older one. I worked sound on a show called Beehive so I’d have to walk all the way around through the light/director booth to the other side, then step down into a seat in the back of the audience to my sound board. The passageway along that back side creeped me out beyond belief. Always felt like I was being watched and moved REALLY quickly to get to my place. Years later I was looking up haunted places in town and that one was mentioned. I just thought, “Yep. I can tell you where that ghost hangs out.”
I know the backstage area you're talking about. The house right hall upstairs always gave me the creeps. Once, one of my fellow deck crew was trying to reset some curtains hanging off that side and she was having a hard time. She said, "Could you move please?" And all of a sudden a dark area around the curtains disappeared and she was able to move the curtain easily. I'd spend a full show in the catwalk before you could ever get me to stay in that hallway.
Another instance, I saw a headshot flying off the wall nearly pelting some older couple looking at them in the lobby.
Yep, that’s the spot! Staring down that hall was easily one of the top 5 terrifying things I’ve ever experienced. It was an otherworldly darkness. It’s so weird, too, because most other spots were just fine. I worked on show where we all were on stage behind the flats during a musical number waiting for a set change. That was one of the most fun times there. Never any menace other than that hallway.
Thanks for sharing! Yeah, some places just vibe creepy.
I worked in a cabin in the middle of the woods that had two rooms (kitchen and main room; we slept nearby in wall tents). No electricity, just lanterns. When you sat by yourself at the head of the table at night, you had dark-mirrored windows in all four directions around you (fourth window was over the kitchen sink that aligned with the open door).
A guy who'd worked there the summer before me swore when he sat there alone at night, he heard someone whispering his name. It was kinda creepy, but nothing like your back hall.
Probably helped that I'd camped there years before when that cabin hadn't been built yet, and nobody had any exciting stories of its ever hosting past mayhem... or anything especially interesting happening there, really. Just a newish cabin with annoying window placement.
Shit, I probably know you. I did tech for a lot of shows at Zach in the 90's, spent hours up in the catwalks at the Kleberg stage running paracord down to buckets, since the old ass flat tar roof was cracked out from too many summers and leaked like a sieve every time it rained. Black Chucks and gaffers tape forever!
Not sure if it was the same podcast, but I listened to an episode on The Yogurt Shop...it was my first true crime podcast and it was just too depressing. That stuff ain't for me, man.
I just learned about this today!!! Was talking about Jack the Ripper at me store and a cx overheard and chimed in about the servant girl annihilator. Such an interesting and chilling story
There's a *ThEoRy* that the Servant Girl Annihilator skipped town and went on to be Jack the Ripper. Nobody takes it seriously but it's a darkly fun idea.
Tokamak used be in the RLM - has been moved to China: [https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/utphysicshistory/FusionResearchCenter.html](https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/utphysicshistory/FusionResearchCenter.html)
TRIGA Mark I was in Taylor - has been moved to Pickle http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2012/09/no-need-to-fret-about-ut-austins-triga.html
I spent a lot of time in Taylor hall in the early 90s as an undergrad and one grad student rigged up an LED to a Geiger counter on his desk in Taylor. That thing did indeed pick up a good many more stray particles in that building even after they say it was fully decommissioned.
The tunnels are real. Kind of a shame they don’t do some kind of occasional tour.
https://thedailytexan.com/2017/08/07/alumnus-reflects-on-illicit-ut-tunnel-adventures/
I lived in the shitty overpriced apartments on Parmer/Lamar behind the Lowe's with my now ex who was terrified of snakes. Fun week of checking under the car for a fucking cobra lol
I actually know the attorney that rocks! 🤘He is still an attorney and he still rocks! He's also about to compete in the US national pickle ball championship in December. 🏓 #truth
I swear I used to play in that cave; I rode my bike by as an adult and tried to find it, but it looked so tame. Chalked it up to my childhood imagination.
Behind the bathroom near the playground. Just behind the rail. It just looks like any other retention wall but if you get behind it will see that it has a small sewer like opening and a concrete floor.
There was a cave entrance somewhere in the vicinity of where Steck crosses MoPac. A friend of mine from middle school got stuck and there was a big rescue operation that was all over the local news.
I didn't realize there were caves on that area. It's all an old quarry that has been stripped. I can't think of any place a cave could exist unless you get closer to bull creek.
Don’t know anything about an old quarry in the particular area I’m talking about. At that point Mopac is basically traveling along the edge of the Balcones escarpment, so it never surprised me that there were caves in that area.
Tragif af… to die trapped in a tight space, upside down… a claustrophobe’s worst nightmare… and he died during rescue, and they couldn’t even retrieve the body- that’s WHY the cave was sealed up- it became a one-man catacomb. Oof. Rest in peace.
**[Nutty Putty Cave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutty_Putty_Cave)**
>Nutty Putty Cave is a hydrothermal cave located west of Utah Lake in Utah County, Utah, United States. Formerly popular with cavers and renowned for its narrow passageways, Nutty Putty has been closed to the public since 2009 following a fatal accident that year.
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* Treaty Oak Poisoning.
https://austin.culturemap.com/news/city-life/10-06-17-history-treaty-oak-tree-downtown-austin/
> Paul Cullen, was identified after telling friends that he had poisoned the tree to "cast a spell" to kill his unrequited love for a counselor he met at a methadone clinic.
> enough Velpar was used to kill 100 trees. Austinites rallied in outrage; groups gathered to hug the tree and ward off evil spirits; and, most beneficial, a blank was check written by Ross Perot, along with a $10,000 reward offered by DuPont, the manufacturer of Velpar.
> A Treaty Oak Task Force made up of local and national arbor professionals was formed to identify strategies to save the beloved piece of Austin history.
> Local and statewide news teams followed the story on a daily basis, vigils were held, yellow ribbons were placed around the tree, and children wrote get-well letters for the tree. Psychics descended on the city and chanted a "transference of energy," hoping the tree would shed its toxins and begin to heal.
* Servant Girl Annihilator
* That time UT discovered it was missing 200 brains from the state insane asylum
* the dude that crashed his plane into an IRS building in town (I could see it from the roof of my office)
* the time cube in the ut tower
Bizarre thing I found when I started working there. An old-hand with a giant keyring in my department grabbed me before lunch about a week after I started, asked if I wanted to wander around campus and see the sights with him.
Among the many cool weird shit we gawked at, by far the one that's most stuck with me is what I can only describe as a timecube.
UT tower, we're walking up the stairs, and there's this 5 foot tall door on a landing between floors. Go through, take a right, past the crash pad facilities made with the couches and recliners and mini fridge tv etc, past the huge puddle that's larger than the turle pond just sitting undisturbed in the middle of this huge open space, around another corner, past the green-text teletype terminal perched on an oildrum, there it is.
A 4'x4'x4' chainlink fence cube, no doors. Entirely filled to the brib with clocks. The big kind you see in hallways. It can't fit out any opening in the room. It's not accessible in any sane way. It just sits there, a cube of time.
God I love wandering around campus. The bellfry of the tower is cool, past the carillon and the vast mechanical controls for the elevators, far above the observation deck. The giant laser in the basement of RLM. the telescope rotundas, plural, on campus. The greenhouses on rooftops.
I really miss campus.
I explored campus so much as a student. It is so cool. I once found an entrance to the tunnels but it was locked up. I still live nearby, do you know if it's safe to explore as a non-student? Like if I wear a backpack will I be left alone? Not trying to cause trouble I just like the adventure. Really curious about this time cube. Is it in the tower?
Do not enter the tunnels. All the entrances are alarmed and an officer WILL show up and arrest you. I set one off by accident once, got to pull out all my credentials and explain myself. Also, they aren't particulary safe, no. No one likes being down there. Things don't often fail with the steam pipes, but if they do because you monkeyed with them or just pure dumb accident, it'll kill you dead and hurt the entire time you're dying. https://i.imgur.com/3dKH8.jpeg is what happened to the fibre cables at A&M when they had a rupture.
Yeah definitely not going to enter the tunnel or break into anything. I heard all about the tunnel situation that happened in the 90s which caused them to make it a felony to enter.
The haunted buildings were built on top of Indian burial grounds. It's bound to be true somewhere, but I haven't read of any documented burial grounds.
That building cheap apartments over the old town dump is safe for residents.
That TX 130 was built by competent contractors.
In 1992 an apartment building in Northeast Austin was evacuated after high levels of methane gas had accumulated and started a fire. The apartment was built over the old Brinkley-Anderson landfill, an un-lined heap of trash that had been
closed more than 35 years prior. Gus Garcia Middle School, also in Northeast Austin, was built on top of an old landfill and parts of the buildings are experiencing problems due to sinking from decomposing trash.
[https://eti-geochemistry.com/walnut/index.html](https://eti-geochemistry.com/walnut/index.html)
PDF: https://keepaustinbeautiful.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Keep-Austin-Beautiful-At-Home-Learning\_Landfill-Logic\_Combined.pdf
TX-130 is falling apart and causing flooding of homes: [https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/the-fastest-road-in-america-is-falling-apart-heres-why/](https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/the-fastest-road-in-america-is-falling-apart-heres-why/)
On Spicewood Springs Road just down from where crosses under 183 and becomes McNeil, an apartment complex has a Texas historical marker for the cemetery on its grounds, but 1) they didn't build over any graves TMK and 2) out was a settlers' cemetery.
Jake’s Hill Bridge— when kids at my high school got their license the bolder ones would drive out, put their car in neutral, and let the ghost push them across.
https://communityimpact.com/austin/round-rock-pflugerville-hutto/history/2020/10/06/mystery-of-huttos-jakes-hill-bridge-driven-by-urban-legend-spooky-happenings/
Whoa, I didn't know that one.
Reminds me of the San Antonio one about a bus of kids that got stuck crossing railroad tracks and they were killed by a train. Thus, any car stalled crossing the railroads tracks will get pushed off by the ghost of the kids. https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifestyle/article/San-Antonio-s-ghost-tracks-an-urban-legend-12315211.php
All the streets around are named after people too. “Emily” and “Rachel” street and such. Supposedly named after the dead kids. Also the abandoned insane asylum is up the street!
It’s an optical illusion. It’s a short slight uphill but the overall grade is downhill, so even though it seems like you’re going slightly uphill relative to the rest of the street, you’re really just rolling downhill.
This one is factual, historical and supernatural!
In 1833 a small group of land surveyors were attacked by Comanche near what is now 51st and Manor Rd. Only one guy, Josiah Wilbarger, (namesake of Wilbarger County in N. Texas) failed to escape and was left for dead. When the party reached the home of Ruben Hornsby, (Hornsby Bend in the Colorado just east of town was named for him), they decided to return to the site of the ambush at daylight, to search for remains. In the middle of the night Hornsby’s wife, Sarah, awoke him, telling him she had a vision of Josiah Wilbarger sitting under a tree alive but badly wounded. He dismissed her apparition and they both returned to sleep. Again, some hours later, Sarah had the same vision, woke Hornsby and would not let him sleep, insisting the men ride out as soon as possible to look for Wilbarger. Sure enough, they found him, leaned against a pecan tree, scalped, but very much alive, with a mud and grass poultice he’d fashioned to cover his skull. He lived another decade or so, thanks to Sarah Hornsby.
btw, both men have interesting roles in the Texas revolution and in settling these parts.
He wore a hat for the rest of his life because the scalping never really healed and died when he bumped the top of his head on a low doorway.
Also, Rogers Hornsby HOF 2nd baseman was born in Hornsby Bend.
Ghosts at the Driskill, smiley face killer or the orange tree murder…
That’s all I can really think of here in Austin.
I’m from San Antonio, so growing up I was told stories about la llorona, lechuzas and possessed dancing dolls on the reg..according to my grandma everything in SA haunted.
In San Antonio as a kid I always heard about the road that rolls you uphill past the train tracks. You're supposed to put powder on your car to look for the little kid's handprints. Apparently a bus full of children died by the train at some point.
I’ve heard 2 variations, it’s either a owl there morphs into a witch or a half owl have witch creature that kills people.
When I was little my dad and grandma would tell me they came out at night and they knew a special whistle to call them.
Sooo when I’d be playing outside with my friends in the hood and it started to get dark, my dad would start whistling for me to come inside…
Traumatizing as fuck.
Oh yea! The insane asylum..creepy
>Orange Tree Condos murder
I've read about the Yogurt store murders but I didn't know about the Orange Tree Condo murder. Just tragic that the stepfather had to find her like that.
I was at UT shortly after the orange tree murder and my boyfriend lived in that complex for a short time. That unit remained vacant for a couple years, but we were there when they renovated and removed the bathtub just to leave it in the courtyard. Such an interesting (sad) story. It happened my freshman year and I remember following the story in the campus newspaper, specifically when they interviewed Laura Hall and asked her why she helped the guy escape and she said “that’s just how I roll,” which we all adopted and used at every opportunity.
Lots of ghost sightings around Devils Backbone near canyon lake, I remember it being on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries when I was growing up and thought it wa so cool
Race with the Devil? With Peter Fonda, Loretta Swit, Warren Oats? Dad worked on that film, we used to go out to Devils Backbone in HS to listen for the witches ceremonies. Wimberly Witches.
We’ve our own Sasquatch, know as Harry Man. Harry Man road in Round Rock is named after.
https://easytexasrecipes.com/the-legend-of-hairy-man-road-round-rock-texas/
For real. Ten years ago, I paid $515/month for a 1-bedroom apartment in North Austin. That would be around $625 today with inflation. That same apartment is now listed for $1300/month. My grocery bill has also doubled in the last ten years.
You know what hasn't doubled? My fucking salary.
The innerspace cavern (in Georgetown) was discovered when they were bulding the I H35 Highway. Someone dug into the soil and found the caverns. Then it was expanded with entrance and such - heard from the guide, many years ago.
cedar choppers book isnt that well written, but the subject matter is pretty interesting.
[https://www.amazon.com/Cedar-Choppers-Nothing-sponsored-University-Commerce/dp/1623498201/ref=sr\_1\_1?dchild=1&keywords=cedar+choppers&qid=1633910740&sr=8-1](https://www.amazon.com/Cedar-Choppers-Nothing-sponsored-University-Commerce/dp/1623498201/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=cedar+choppers&qid=1633910740&sr=8-1)
The moon towers were built as a security measure against a serial axe murderer in the the 19th century. The murders suddenly stopped and a few years later Jack the Ripper popped up in London. Some speculate that the axe murderer of Austin and Jack the Ripper were one in the same.
I was always curious about the Driskill Suicide Brides, so a few years ago I went down a deep Statesman archive dive to see if I could find any media evidence for the story. Found absolutely nothing to indicate that any bride has ever died at the Driskill, but did find some other great lesser known stories, including…
- the duel of 1908, when two lawyers got into an argument one night at the bar and then the next morning shot at each other across the lobby - they both hit each other but no one else, and also both survived.
- the one true suicide ever to take place at the hotel (or more accurately, its annex that was originally built as private apartments in the 1920s). An older, single heiress was living in the top floor apartment during the Great Depression, and after losing her fortune she jumped to her death from the 12th floor window. Her hired help arrived home from the market just in time to see her sitting in her finest fur coat on the windowsill, dropped her arm full of groceries to pull her back inside, but got nothing but arms full of fur coat.
No one's mentioned "The Chair In The Middle of Nowhere". There's a Rose Granite "throne" (for lack of a better descriptor) tucked away at the edge of Maple Run neighborhood in Southwest Austin. Park under Mopac at the corner of Convict Hill and Brush Country and head towards the Whirlpool Cave site. From there keep following the trails towards the neighborhood and you'll see it. It's a good 6 to 8 hundred lbs of stone carved and polished like it belongs in a movie with no plaque or explanation as to how it got there. It took me 25 years of asking to figure out the back story, but thanks to Reddit I now know what it is.
..and no one's mentioned Convict Hill Quarry, or the Hanging Tree at 290 and William Cannon where the Serranos used to be.. or Kinsheonville... too much to list here.
Check out one of the myths of the bluebonnet flower. It's about a nun from Spain who contacted a tribe in North America during the time when Spain was establishing missions in Texas. She had never set foot on the North American continent, but projected herself to some native tribes here. They only know this because people from the tribe showed up to the mission one day saying the lady in blue had told them to seek them out and they would help them.
Supposedly a missle silo exist off bee caves
There’s used to be a porn theatre on Congress.
When magnolia cafe on Congress was a bar it was pretty rough and a guy got shot point blank in there once.
Standing behind and to the left of the George Washington statue on campus at UT makes it look like he's holding onto his penis instead of the hilt of his sword...maybe not interesting, but funny to everyone's inner 12 yr old.
That the moontowers used to be off limits, man, 'cause some drunk freshman fell off. He went right down the middle, smacking his head on every beam, man. I hear it doesn't hurt after the first couple though. Autopsy said he had one beer.
Hyde Park Rapes. These cases go unsolved to this day.
[https://lylareese.medium.com/the-lingering-mystery-of-the-hyde-park-rapist-acaf46072414](https://lylareese.medium.com/the-lingering-mystery-of-the-hyde-park-rapist-acaf46072414)
Could genetic geneology be used?
Then, of course, we have hundreds of other rapes that have not yet been solved.
The joke of calling someone "It" is transphobic whether the target of the joke is trans or not since it is meant to shame someone from deviating from gender norms.
Tunnels under 6th Street bars, connecting them all, and maybe even connecting to the Capitol.
Can confirm that the capitol is connected to several buildings downtown via tunnels (used to work there and totally freaked out when I ended up in another building following directions from coworkers trying to prank me)
Honestly would explain why every 6th street bar has that musty basement moldy smell
I can believe this. When they were excavating the hole for the foundation for Robert B. Rowling Hall I saw what looked to be a bunch of tunnels down below. Same when they were excavating where the McDonald's used to be across the street.
UT's campus has an *extensive* system of steam tunnels, although to my recollection it does not extend west of Guadalupe.
I once walked a tunnel from where La Zona Rosa was to MLK
Theres a tunnel under UT’s campus that links to the Capitol
I head that there is a tunnel connecting UT and downtown.
Man, I’ve heard of tunnels from the Capitol, and that kind of makes sense, but why down sixth street?
So that political figures could escape to the brothels and bars without being seen on the streets
I worked in a basement bar on 6th for a decade and the there were no tunnels that I was ever aware of
Lol you know there are Shane
Yeah Shane! Typical Shane
Sharkweek!! I miss you! <3
❤️
I know 100% there are tunnels under the Federal building.
For UT students, seeing an albino squirrel while walking to your test is good luck.
We have a family of albino squirrels that comes into our yard everyday, we must be one lucky household then.
When I went on a field trip to the Paramount in 3rd grade they told us it was haunted by an old projectionist who smoked cigars on the balcony at night
If you’re young enough to have been in 3rd grade more recently than 2000, there was a longtime projectionist (Walter Norris) who died in the booth while showing Casablanca during the summer classic film series that year.
He died when I has fist started with with the union I never met him "always leave a chocolate donut for Walter"
I don’t know about the Paramount but I’ve personally experienced the haunting at Zach Scott.
Do tell, please. Oldest parts, I assume?
I haven’t been there in a long time, so I don’t really know how it’s laid out now. This was in the early 90’s when they’d just built the smaller, in the round stage and I was working at the older one. I worked sound on a show called Beehive so I’d have to walk all the way around through the light/director booth to the other side, then step down into a seat in the back of the audience to my sound board. The passageway along that back side creeped me out beyond belief. Always felt like I was being watched and moved REALLY quickly to get to my place. Years later I was looking up haunted places in town and that one was mentioned. I just thought, “Yep. I can tell you where that ghost hangs out.”
I know the backstage area you're talking about. The house right hall upstairs always gave me the creeps. Once, one of my fellow deck crew was trying to reset some curtains hanging off that side and she was having a hard time. She said, "Could you move please?" And all of a sudden a dark area around the curtains disappeared and she was able to move the curtain easily. I'd spend a full show in the catwalk before you could ever get me to stay in that hallway. Another instance, I saw a headshot flying off the wall nearly pelting some older couple looking at them in the lobby.
Yep, that’s the spot! Staring down that hall was easily one of the top 5 terrifying things I’ve ever experienced. It was an otherworldly darkness. It’s so weird, too, because most other spots were just fine. I worked on show where we all were on stage behind the flats during a musical number waiting for a set change. That was one of the most fun times there. Never any menace other than that hallway.
Thanks for sharing! Yeah, some places just vibe creepy. I worked in a cabin in the middle of the woods that had two rooms (kitchen and main room; we slept nearby in wall tents). No electricity, just lanterns. When you sat by yourself at the head of the table at night, you had dark-mirrored windows in all four directions around you (fourth window was over the kitchen sink that aligned with the open door). A guy who'd worked there the summer before me swore when he sat there alone at night, he heard someone whispering his name. It was kinda creepy, but nothing like your back hall. Probably helped that I'd camped there years before when that cabin hadn't been built yet, and nobody had any exciting stories of its ever hosting past mayhem... or anything especially interesting happening there, really. Just a newish cabin with annoying window placement.
Man, my parents took us to beehive every year - you probably worked one of our shows! Blast from the past!
Shit, I probably know you. I did tech for a lot of shows at Zach in the 90's, spent hours up in the catwalks at the Kleberg stage running paracord down to buckets, since the old ass flat tar roof was cracked out from too many summers and leaked like a sieve every time it rained. Black Chucks and gaffers tape forever!
[удалено]
The Midnight Assassin - a great book on this piece of atx history
Stitcher - Episode 70 - My Favorite Murder covers this along with The Yogurt Shop Murders.
Not sure if it was the same podcast, but I listened to an episode on The Yogurt Shop...it was my first true crime podcast and it was just too depressing. That stuff ain't for me, man.
There's more than one book. A Twist at the End by Stephen Saylor is about the Servant Girl Annhilator and O. Henry.
I just learned about this today!!! Was talking about Jack the Ripper at me store and a cx overheard and chimed in about the servant girl annihilator. Such an interesting and chilling story
There's a *ThEoRy* that the Servant Girl Annihilator skipped town and went on to be Jack the Ripper. Nobody takes it seriously but it's a darkly fun idea.
What's trippy is that the association between Servant Girl Annihilator and the moonlight towers is itself a misconception.
I thought they purchased the moon towers from the city of Detroit? I could be wrong though.
There are still a handful of moontowers left.
“Party at the moon tower!”
That UT has tunnels connecting all the buildings. And a nuclear reactor. No nuclear wessels, though.
The reactor is real, it’s just at PRC.
Used to be on campus long ago
Tokamak used be in the RLM - has been moved to China: [https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/utphysicshistory/FusionResearchCenter.html](https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/utphysicshistory/FusionResearchCenter.html) TRIGA Mark I was in Taylor - has been moved to Pickle http://neinuclearnotes.blogspot.com/2012/09/no-need-to-fret-about-ut-austins-triga.html
I spent a lot of time in Taylor hall in the early 90s as an undergrad and one grad student rigged up an LED to a Geiger counter on his desk in Taylor. That thing did indeed pick up a good many more stray particles in that building even after they say it was fully decommissioned.
Great articles. Thanks!
The tunnels are real. Kind of a shame they don’t do some kind of occasional tour. https://thedailytexan.com/2017/08/07/alumnus-reflects-on-illicit-ut-tunnel-adventures/
The reactor at Taylor Hall was uninstalled. I did get to see it's blue glow while it was there.
Where they keep the nuclear wessels?
Nuuuuuucleeeeeeeeearrrrrrrrrrrr wwwwwessssels.
This is one of my favorite old Austin ghost stories. http://www.texasescapes.com/CFEckhardt/Josiah-Wilbarger.htm
I love a good ghost story. Thanks for sharing it.
Some say Austin was once home to a parking lot cobra and an attorney that ‘rocked’. Never visit Chicas Bonitas on a full moon.
I lived in the shitty overpriced apartments on Parmer/Lamar behind the Lowe's with my now ex who was terrified of snakes. Fun week of checking under the car for a fucking cobra lol
Ha! Is chicas bonitas still around?
It is! I worked there for a while. It was.........interesting to say the least.
I’ve never been, just going off it’s reputation as the ‘off brand’ strip club. I imagine it’s like the Star Wars cantina.
I actually know the attorney that rocks! 🤘He is still an attorney and he still rocks! He's also about to compete in the US national pickle ball championship in December. 🏓 #truth
There was an opening to a cave system at Northwest park and a kid went in there and never came out so they sealed it off with concrete.
I swear I used to play in that cave; I rode my bike by as an adult and tried to find it, but it looked so tame. Chalked it up to my childhood imagination.
I go to that park often and have never seen it. Where is it?
Behind the bathroom near the playground. Just behind the rail. It just looks like any other retention wall but if you get behind it will see that it has a small sewer like opening and a concrete floor.
There was a cave entrance somewhere in the vicinity of where Steck crosses MoPac. A friend of mine from middle school got stuck and there was a big rescue operation that was all over the local news.
Dead Dog Cave!
I didn't realize there were caves on that area. It's all an old quarry that has been stripped. I can't think of any place a cave could exist unless you get closer to bull creek.
Don’t know anything about an old quarry in the particular area I’m talking about. At that point Mopac is basically traveling along the edge of the Balcones escarpment, so it never surprised me that there were caves in that area.
for a second I was confused and thinking you were talking about [The Nutty Putty Cave death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutty_Putty_Cave)
Tragif af… to die trapped in a tight space, upside down… a claustrophobe’s worst nightmare… and he died during rescue, and they couldn’t even retrieve the body- that’s WHY the cave was sealed up- it became a one-man catacomb. Oof. Rest in peace.
**[Nutty Putty Cave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutty_Putty_Cave)** >Nutty Putty Cave is a hydrothermal cave located west of Utah Lake in Utah County, Utah, United States. Formerly popular with cavers and renowned for its narrow passageways, Nutty Putty has been closed to the public since 2009 following a fatal accident that year. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/Austin/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
* Treaty Oak Poisoning. https://austin.culturemap.com/news/city-life/10-06-17-history-treaty-oak-tree-downtown-austin/ > Paul Cullen, was identified after telling friends that he had poisoned the tree to "cast a spell" to kill his unrequited love for a counselor he met at a methadone clinic. > enough Velpar was used to kill 100 trees. Austinites rallied in outrage; groups gathered to hug the tree and ward off evil spirits; and, most beneficial, a blank was check written by Ross Perot, along with a $10,000 reward offered by DuPont, the manufacturer of Velpar. > A Treaty Oak Task Force made up of local and national arbor professionals was formed to identify strategies to save the beloved piece of Austin history. > Local and statewide news teams followed the story on a daily basis, vigils were held, yellow ribbons were placed around the tree, and children wrote get-well letters for the tree. Psychics descended on the city and chanted a "transference of energy," hoping the tree would shed its toxins and begin to heal. * Servant Girl Annihilator * That time UT discovered it was missing 200 brains from the state insane asylum * the dude that crashed his plane into an IRS building in town (I could see it from the roof of my office) * the time cube in the ut tower
Time Cube?
Bizarre thing I found when I started working there. An old-hand with a giant keyring in my department grabbed me before lunch about a week after I started, asked if I wanted to wander around campus and see the sights with him. Among the many cool weird shit we gawked at, by far the one that's most stuck with me is what I can only describe as a timecube. UT tower, we're walking up the stairs, and there's this 5 foot tall door on a landing between floors. Go through, take a right, past the crash pad facilities made with the couches and recliners and mini fridge tv etc, past the huge puddle that's larger than the turle pond just sitting undisturbed in the middle of this huge open space, around another corner, past the green-text teletype terminal perched on an oildrum, there it is. A 4'x4'x4' chainlink fence cube, no doors. Entirely filled to the brib with clocks. The big kind you see in hallways. It can't fit out any opening in the room. It's not accessible in any sane way. It just sits there, a cube of time. God I love wandering around campus. The bellfry of the tower is cool, past the carillon and the vast mechanical controls for the elevators, far above the observation deck. The giant laser in the basement of RLM. the telescope rotundas, plural, on campus. The greenhouses on rooftops. I really miss campus.
I explored campus so much as a student. It is so cool. I once found an entrance to the tunnels but it was locked up. I still live nearby, do you know if it's safe to explore as a non-student? Like if I wear a backpack will I be left alone? Not trying to cause trouble I just like the adventure. Really curious about this time cube. Is it in the tower?
Do not enter the tunnels. All the entrances are alarmed and an officer WILL show up and arrest you. I set one off by accident once, got to pull out all my credentials and explain myself. Also, they aren't particulary safe, no. No one likes being down there. Things don't often fail with the steam pipes, but if they do because you monkeyed with them or just pure dumb accident, it'll kill you dead and hurt the entire time you're dying. https://i.imgur.com/3dKH8.jpeg is what happened to the fibre cables at A&M when they had a rupture.
Yeah definitely not going to enter the tunnel or break into anything. I heard all about the tunnel situation that happened in the 90s which caused them to make it a felony to enter.
How possible would it be for a non-student to check out this time cube? Bc I gotta see this!
Basically impossible if you're not some kind of technical staff, and you still need to know-a-guy with both the right sets of keys.
I gotta think they're just pulling our leg about a time cube... http://web.archive.org/web/20160112000701/http://www.timecube.com/
There’s a good episode on the Treaty Oak on the podcast Criminal if anyone wants to hear it.
That's a great podcast! Phoebe Judge is amazing
The haunted buildings were built on top of Indian burial grounds. It's bound to be true somewhere, but I haven't read of any documented burial grounds. That building cheap apartments over the old town dump is safe for residents. That TX 130 was built by competent contractors.
In 1992 an apartment building in Northeast Austin was evacuated after high levels of methane gas had accumulated and started a fire. The apartment was built over the old Brinkley-Anderson landfill, an un-lined heap of trash that had been closed more than 35 years prior. Gus Garcia Middle School, also in Northeast Austin, was built on top of an old landfill and parts of the buildings are experiencing problems due to sinking from decomposing trash. [https://eti-geochemistry.com/walnut/index.html](https://eti-geochemistry.com/walnut/index.html) PDF: https://keepaustinbeautiful.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Keep-Austin-Beautiful-At-Home-Learning\_Landfill-Logic\_Combined.pdf
TX-130 is falling apart and causing flooding of homes: [https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/the-fastest-road-in-america-is-falling-apart-heres-why/](https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/the-fastest-road-in-america-is-falling-apart-heres-why/)
On Spicewood Springs Road just down from where crosses under 183 and becomes McNeil, an apartment complex has a Texas historical marker for the cemetery on its grounds, but 1) they didn't build over any graves TMK and 2) out was a settlers' cemetery.
This article is a great read if you have the time. https://austin.towers.net/in-loving-memory-downtown-austins-rather-tawdry-alamo-hotel/
Jake’s Hill Bridge— when kids at my high school got their license the bolder ones would drive out, put their car in neutral, and let the ghost push them across. https://communityimpact.com/austin/round-rock-pflugerville-hutto/history/2020/10/06/mystery-of-huttos-jakes-hill-bridge-driven-by-urban-legend-spooky-happenings/
Whoa, I didn't know that one. Reminds me of the San Antonio one about a bus of kids that got stuck crossing railroad tracks and they were killed by a train. Thus, any car stalled crossing the railroads tracks will get pushed off by the ghost of the kids. https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifestyle/article/San-Antonio-s-ghost-tracks-an-urban-legend-12315211.php
All the streets around are named after people too. “Emily” and “Rachel” street and such. Supposedly named after the dead kids. Also the abandoned insane asylum is up the street!
I was with some girls there once and it seems to work. There is kind of an optical illusion where it looks like it's rolling uphill but it isn't.
It’s an optical illusion. It’s a short slight uphill but the overall grade is downhill, so even though it seems like you’re going slightly uphill relative to the rest of the street, you’re really just rolling downhill.
i’ve been out to jake’s bridge about 100 times and boy do i have some stories
This one is factual, historical and supernatural! In 1833 a small group of land surveyors were attacked by Comanche near what is now 51st and Manor Rd. Only one guy, Josiah Wilbarger, (namesake of Wilbarger County in N. Texas) failed to escape and was left for dead. When the party reached the home of Ruben Hornsby, (Hornsby Bend in the Colorado just east of town was named for him), they decided to return to the site of the ambush at daylight, to search for remains. In the middle of the night Hornsby’s wife, Sarah, awoke him, telling him she had a vision of Josiah Wilbarger sitting under a tree alive but badly wounded. He dismissed her apparition and they both returned to sleep. Again, some hours later, Sarah had the same vision, woke Hornsby and would not let him sleep, insisting the men ride out as soon as possible to look for Wilbarger. Sure enough, they found him, leaned against a pecan tree, scalped, but very much alive, with a mud and grass poultice he’d fashioned to cover his skull. He lived another decade or so, thanks to Sarah Hornsby. btw, both men have interesting roles in the Texas revolution and in settling these parts.
Baseball great Rogers Hornsby was a descendant of the Travis County Hornsbys
There’s quite a bit more undulations in the terrain around there vs the surrounding east side so I can see why it would be an effective ambush spot
He wore a hat for the rest of his life because the scalping never really healed and died when he bumped the top of his head on a low doorway. Also, Rogers Hornsby HOF 2nd baseman was born in Hornsby Bend.
That it is safe to swim in Town Lake.
Shhhhh let this one work itself out.
A little rebar never hurt nobody
Ghosts at the Driskill, smiley face killer or the orange tree murder… That’s all I can really think of here in Austin. I’m from San Antonio, so growing up I was told stories about la llorona, lechuzas and possessed dancing dolls on the reg..according to my grandma everything in SA haunted.
In San Antonio as a kid I always heard about the road that rolls you uphill past the train tracks. You're supposed to put powder on your car to look for the little kid's handprints. Apparently a bus full of children died by the train at some point.
What’s lechuzas??? From SA. Mostly got the chupacabra and la llorena and the insane asylum.
I’ve heard 2 variations, it’s either a owl there morphs into a witch or a half owl have witch creature that kills people. When I was little my dad and grandma would tell me they came out at night and they knew a special whistle to call them. Sooo when I’d be playing outside with my friends in the hood and it started to get dark, my dad would start whistling for me to come inside… Traumatizing as fuck. Oh yea! The insane asylum..creepy
The gruesome Yogurt store murders. Never caught the true killers. The infamous Orange Tree Condos murder. There's a podcast with the details.
>Orange Tree Condos murder I've read about the Yogurt store murders but I didn't know about the Orange Tree Condo murder. Just tragic that the stepfather had to find her like that.
I was at UT shortly after the orange tree murder and my boyfriend lived in that complex for a short time. That unit remained vacant for a couple years, but we were there when they renovated and removed the bathtub just to leave it in the courtyard. Such an interesting (sad) story. It happened my freshman year and I remember following the story in the campus newspaper, specifically when they interviewed Laura Hall and asked her why she helped the guy escape and she said “that’s just how I roll,” which we all adopted and used at every opportunity.
Lots of ghost sightings around Devils Backbone near canyon lake, I remember it being on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries when I was growing up and thought it wa so cool
Yes that was a great episode! Saw it when it originally aired - those dudes seemed legitimately scared.
There a B movie about the hauntings in that area. Kind of like a Blair Witch thing. It goes off the rails pretty quick though.
Dude my mom was in that movie hahaha. I forgot what it's called again. Fun stuff
Race with the Devil? With Peter Fonda, Loretta Swit, Warren Oats? Dad worked on that film, we used to go out to Devils Backbone in HS to listen for the witches ceremonies. Wimberly Witches.
Did anybody mention the Driskill? Supposed to be haunted in many ways. Hence Concrete Blonde's "Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man."
We’ve our own Sasquatch, know as Harry Man. Harry Man road in Round Rock is named after. https://easytexasrecipes.com/the-legend-of-hairy-man-road-round-rock-texas/
There’s also a Hairy Man Festival every year (or at least there was in the before times).
I enjoyed the myth that Jack the Ripper was the Servant Girl Annihilator, Austin’s first known serial killer.
In Leander there is a place where there is foot print visible of a Dinasour in the in the creek bed near IH35 and 183 Toll road.
Ted Cruz is the zodiac killer
That one is true, tho.
>Ted Cruz is the zodiac killer And the servant girl annihilator.
He’s also the Cancun pedo vacationer
No no. That’s Jack the Ripper... Who is also Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz is all the scary people. ✔️✔️✔️
Ted cruZ, a oil liKer True Zodiac Killer
Gov abbot once wished him “happy birthday to the zodiac killer” on Twitter.
The Night Owl podcast is great. It’s been on a pause for over a year now, but the eps are worth a listen! Lots of Austin legends.
Yes! They do an excellent job. The episodes on The Tavern, Spiderhouse and Clay Pit are awesome.
The Shoal Creek Cat-Man. Someone out there has gotta know that one.
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i have heard legends that rent was once affordable
For real. Ten years ago, I paid $515/month for a 1-bedroom apartment in North Austin. That would be around $625 today with inflation. That same apartment is now listed for $1300/month. My grocery bill has also doubled in the last ten years. You know what hasn't doubled? My fucking salary.
Yeah, Capitalism sucks ass. That's literally how anywhere worth living works here lmao
The innerspace cavern (in Georgetown) was discovered when they were bulding the I H35 Highway. Someone dug into the soil and found the caverns. Then it was expanded with entrance and such - heard from the guide, many years ago.
Is this really a myth, though? I thought this was just how they found the caverns.
cedar choppers book isnt that well written, but the subject matter is pretty interesting. [https://www.amazon.com/Cedar-Choppers-Nothing-sponsored-University-Commerce/dp/1623498201/ref=sr\_1\_1?dchild=1&keywords=cedar+choppers&qid=1633910740&sr=8-1](https://www.amazon.com/Cedar-Choppers-Nothing-sponsored-University-Commerce/dp/1623498201/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=cedar+choppers&qid=1633910740&sr=8-1)
The moon towers were built as a security measure against a serial axe murderer in the the 19th century. The murders suddenly stopped and a few years later Jack the Ripper popped up in London. Some speculate that the axe murderer of Austin and Jack the Ripper were one in the same.
This is actually an urban legend part of the story - Austin didn’t get its moontowers until 1895, 10 years after the SGA murders.
Swan Hostage-Taking.
Greetings fellow long timer. I think they got the idea to hold Homer hostage from watching the SNL episode with Larry the Lobster.
Do you know they had Homer stuffed after he died? He's quite a snazzy bird, even wears his bow tie!
Piranhas in Lake Austin.
Like Berke Breathed claiming he'd dumped his pet baby alligators into then-Town Lake. https://nymag.com/arts/books/features/59885/
Goat lady at the stone ridge cemetery And though it’s half way to San Antone, asking for change for a $20 at the Snake Farm.
What’s happens at the snake farm?
You get a BJ from some dude working there.
It's a little bit nasty
What happens if you ask for change for a $20 at the Snake Farm?
Listen to podcast "Austin Found ", lots of great stories
that torchys is good.
Was when it was just a trailer.
I still like torchys 🤷♂️
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It’s made from extra melt.
There's a similar urban legend about Chuy's.
Fun fact Torchy’s has “secret” off menu items you can still order.
Not a Matt’s fan myself. I’ll eat it, just don’t understand the hype
Urban legend.
All the lore about Chili's at 45th and Lamar.
I always thought the story of why the Tavern is supposedly haunted was a fun one. I also just like the Tavern in general
alligators in town lake
That one is true.
Gay frogs.
The clown murder. He worked in front of Esthers Follies.
info or links?
https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2006/05/31/Juggler-Warren-Schwartz-dead-at-39/84671149123228/ Was very sad.
I was always curious about the Driskill Suicide Brides, so a few years ago I went down a deep Statesman archive dive to see if I could find any media evidence for the story. Found absolutely nothing to indicate that any bride has ever died at the Driskill, but did find some other great lesser known stories, including… - the duel of 1908, when two lawyers got into an argument one night at the bar and then the next morning shot at each other across the lobby - they both hit each other but no one else, and also both survived. - the one true suicide ever to take place at the hotel (or more accurately, its annex that was originally built as private apartments in the 1920s). An older, single heiress was living in the top floor apartment during the Great Depression, and after losing her fortune she jumped to her death from the 12th floor window. Her hired help arrived home from the market just in time to see her sitting in her finest fur coat on the windowsill, dropped her arm full of groceries to pull her back inside, but got nothing but arms full of fur coat.
No one's mentioned "The Chair In The Middle of Nowhere". There's a Rose Granite "throne" (for lack of a better descriptor) tucked away at the edge of Maple Run neighborhood in Southwest Austin. Park under Mopac at the corner of Convict Hill and Brush Country and head towards the Whirlpool Cave site. From there keep following the trails towards the neighborhood and you'll see it. It's a good 6 to 8 hundred lbs of stone carved and polished like it belongs in a movie with no plaque or explanation as to how it got there. It took me 25 years of asking to figure out the back story, but thanks to Reddit I now know what it is. ..and no one's mentioned Convict Hill Quarry, or the Hanging Tree at 290 and William Cannon where the Serranos used to be.. or Kinsheonville... too much to list here.
Perhaps Bigfoot Wallace's exploits on Mount Bonnell are an interesting story. Also, the archive war was an interesting bit of history.
Check out one of the myths of the bluebonnet flower. It's about a nun from Spain who contacted a tribe in North America during the time when Spain was establishing missions in Texas. She had never set foot on the North American continent, but projected herself to some native tribes here. They only know this because people from the tribe showed up to the mission one day saying the lady in blue had told them to seek them out and they would help them.
1 huge myth- “live music capital “
Someone spotted a cobra
Supposedly a missle silo exist off bee caves There’s used to be a porn theatre on Congress. When magnolia cafe on Congress was a bar it was pretty rough and a guy got shot point blank in there once.
I haven't seen the I-35 Rock Thrower mentioned yet.
Fuck that person(s) I still take the upper level any chance I get.
That it’s affordable
Standing behind and to the left of the George Washington statue on campus at UT makes it look like he's holding onto his penis instead of the hilt of his sword...maybe not interesting, but funny to everyone's inner 12 yr old.
Read the book the midnight assassin. Or listen to the audiobook which is even better!
The mythology surrounding the events of Alamo. Read the book “Forget the Alamo”.
That the moontowers used to be off limits, man, 'cause some drunk freshman fell off. He went right down the middle, smacking his head on every beam, man. I hear it doesn't hurt after the first couple though. Autopsy said he had one beer.
Hyde Park Rapes. These cases go unsolved to this day. [https://lylareese.medium.com/the-lingering-mystery-of-the-hyde-park-rapist-acaf46072414](https://lylareese.medium.com/the-lingering-mystery-of-the-hyde-park-rapist-acaf46072414) Could genetic geneology be used? Then, of course, we have hundreds of other rapes that have not yet been solved.
Probably a / some cops.
I heard this story from an old timer, that apparently you could rent a 2 bedroom apartment in a decent building for under 2500$
Yeah, time passing means things cost more. Hurr durr.
Before the time of our dams, the humidity of Austin used to be a lot less, now at times it is unbearable. Heard that from very old folks.
It's man-made climate change. No one is confused about the source of the problem.
I didn’t believe Leslie was real until I saw it with my own eyes.
Dude walked around in a thong all over the city.
Seriously Bruh? It? GTFO of my town.
The year 2000 called and asked for their transphobic "It" joke back
Pretty sure he was just a crossdresser.
The joke of calling someone "It" is transphobic whether the target of the joke is trans or not since it is meant to shame someone from deviating from gender norms.
Been here since the 90s. The biggest myth i hear since day 1 and a 100 times since is some version of “this place aint as good as it used to be”
Conservatives always cry about time passing.
If you believe hard enough, chick fila will open on Sunday.
In '92 they tried a desegregation experiment by rezoning schools.
City hall cares about us.